I was in the process of looking at getting a Hifi system set-up in my house. I currently have an AV system, usual widescreen telly etc, yamaha rv630rds, pioneer 656 dvd player, and mission M71i and m7c2 speakers which i use for playing CD’s.
Having been round to a mates and listened to his system purely setup for music, i decided it was time for me to get a music only system for myself.
I had decided on a NAD combination of:
C521BEE CD
C320BEE Amp
But having looked at the NAD site, they have some other nice systems, and i liked the look of building a slightly higher spec machine (obviously i would demo it at my local hifi store before buying) it consisted of a NAD:
C422 Tuner
C162 Pre-Amp
C272 Power Amp
C542 CD
Now i know there is a fair price difference, but if it is worth the extra cash, i don’t mind paying. The only thing i don’t really understand is the need for 2 amps, are pre+power better than intergrated? why?
Only other point is please don’t recommend any other makes, you may be able to convince me to try them, but i doubt you will be able to convince our lass! She has seen them and has ‘Approved’ the design of them as being acceptable for me to buy (Although i am having a hard time convincing her on the 42" plasma, she seems to think a 28" widescreen is sufficient! )
Cheers for any help!
(PS you can see the next question already can’t you, what speakers! )
Main benefits of Pre & Power amps is isolation of the main circuits each having there
own dedicated power supply and hense less induced noise within the curcuit paths.
You also tend to have better expandability for future a proper pre-amp will allow you to have more than one power amp so you can move away from a stereo power amp into the
realms of mono amps, one per channel left/right.
You are however best going to one or two hi-fi shops and having a listern in there demo rooms to the various setup’s, if Nad is the choice then choose a shop that does Nad’s and has a demo room and get a compare going between a single stereo amp and a pre/power
combo remembering to take some of your CD’s with you so you have music you know.
I’ve been in to Hi-fi shops with a clear mind on what I wanted and ended up testing half the shop out mixing and matching to I found a combo I liked.
Man that brings back memories. I had a NAD amp/pre-amp a couple of decades ago, hooked up to a HUGE pair of Altec-Lansings - Dark Side of the Moon used to shake the foundations!!!
Well, been and had a listen to a few differen’t setups today. Couldn’t really tell the difference between the pre+power and the integrated, guess i just spent too much time up a tree with a chainsaw in my younger days!
I ended up thinking the best combination for value/sound was:
NAD C352CT Amp
NAD C542 CD Player
NAD C422 Tuner (not a DAB, but NAD don’t do one!)
and the best speakers i tried were Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo Ones.
Just waiting for a reply form the dealer about a few questions i had, then i may be the proud new owner of a new system!
